Plants are the basis of our life on South Padre Island.

Plants protect our beaches from storm damage, our coastlines from erosion, and our water from pollution. They provide essential habitat for birds, fish and wildlife that draw visitors and preserve the uniqueness of coastal region. These visitors are an economic lifeline for our island—they rent our condos and beach homes, stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants, shop in our stores, and support our economy. We’re connected to plants through the air we breathe, the food we eat, and medicines they provide.

But what do we do to protect plant ecosystems we depend on?

We protect plants.

The Native Plant Center was established to provide a local source of native plants and preserve coastal plant ecosystems. In our shade cloth nursery we grow plants to support butterflies and bees, fish in our waters and birds in our trees, to stabilize our coastlines, beaches and dunes, and to strengthen our ability to rebound from catastrophic coastal monsoons. With your support, we will add an ecotourism venue and botanical garden bringing new visitors to the island. The Native Plant Center is an advocate for sustainable plant management and care—a voice that was previously missing on the island—and we need your support to continue our vital work.

We Have Plants For Sale!

open Hours

Monday-Friday: 10-5

Saturday: 10-2

Sunday: Closed

Upcoming Closings: Christmas through January 31

Plant INVENTORY

This is an abbreviated list (more coming soon). Come visit us to find even more plants!

Coral Bean

Yellow Sophora

Beach Evening Primrose

Texas Ebony

Seaside Goldenrod

Spanish Dagger

Yucca Treculeana

Confederate Rose

(non-native)

Tropical Milkweed

Black Mangrove

Padre Island Mistflower

Cardinal Cap

(non-native)

Zizotes Milkweed

Tenaza

Havardia pallens

Woolly Stemodia

Stemodia Lanata

Tepeguaje

Leucaena pulverulenta

White Plumbago

Plumbago scandens

Cenicilla

Sesuvium portulacastrum

NPC Live!

Development Plan

Help us preserve plant life on South Padre Island. We are introducing proper pruning guidelines to prevent the loss of palms, a signature plant for South Padre Island and our region. We have advanced new policies to prevent mature plant loss and saved over seventy plants ourselves. But, we need your help to do more. There are so many ways to get involved.

Sponsors Needed

Now, we need your help to complete our development so that we can open and contribute to our community. Please consider a sponsorship with naming recognition for the following items privately or through your company.

Past Events

Plant of the Month

Our April plant of the month is the Plains Wild Indigo, an exquisite perennial in the Fabaceae (Pea) Family that can be found growing in the beach and dunes of Cameron and Willacy counties. It is also known as Smooth stem wild indigo, Longbract wild indigo, Cream false indigo, Cream wild indigo, Large-bracted wild indigo.

Texas Ebony also known as Black-bead ebony, Ebony ape's-earring, Ebano is a member of the Fabaceae (Mimosoideae Pea Family). Full grown it is a 25-30 ft. shrub or tree with a rounded, dense crown that is an attractive shade tree common to our region.

December’s plant of the month is the Wild Poinsettia. This dwarf poinsettia is used as an ornamental. It has green stems and alternate lobed leaves, the uppermost with irregular red blotches near the base.

November’s plant of the month is the Texas Purple Sage or Cenizo, one of our most beautiful shrubs and a larval host plant for yellow Theona Checkerspot butterfly (Chlosyne theono) and grey-blue Calleta silkmonth (Eupackardia calleta).

This month, we feature the Mexican Flame Vine, a climbing vine for Monarch butterflies. It is a nectar producing plant native to Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. Its intense blooming time is from November through Spring.